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China Halts U.S. Academic Freedom at Class Door By Oliver Staley and Daniel Golden - Nov 29, 2011 6:00 AM GMT+0800
想认领的同学可以选部分翻译，不用全文
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/china-halts-u-s-college-freedom-at-class-door.html
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A student reads in front of the Johns Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, talks with Bloomberg's Oliver Staley and Daniel Golden about the joint campus run by Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University in China. Last year American student Brendon Stewart broke the Hopkins-Nanjing Center's rules that confine academic freedom to the classroom when he attempted to publish an academic journal designed for a wide-reaching audience. Administrators prevented the journal from circulating outside campus, and a student was pressured to withdraw an article about Chinese protest movements. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Jason Patent, American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, talks with Bloomberg News about the joint campus run by Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University in China. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Pedestrians walk along Xuanwu Lake near downtown Nanjing, China. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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A pedestrian walks past the front gate of the Johns Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Jason Patent, American co-director of the Johns Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Faculty members and students walk through the Johns Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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A copy of a page of American student Brendon Stewart's never published academic journal. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
In the 25 years Johns HopkinsUniversity and Nanjing University have run a joint campus inChina, it’s never published an academic journal. When Americanstudent Brendon Stewart tried last year, he found out why.
Intended to showcase the best work by Chinese and Americanstudents and faculty to a far-flung audience, Stewart’s journalbroke the Hopkins-Nanjing Center’s rules that confine academicfreedom to the classroom. Administrators prevented the journalfrom circulating outside campus, and a student was pressured towithdraw an article about Chinese protest movements. About 75copies sat in a box in Stewart’s dorm room for a year.
“You think you’re going to a place that has academicfreedom, and maybe in theory you do, but in reality you don’t,”said Stewart, 27, who earned a master’s degree in internationalstudies this year from Hopkins-Nanjing and now works for anaccounting firm in Beijing. “The place is run by Chineseadministrators, and I don’t think the U.S. side had a lot ofbargaining power to protect the interests of its students. Atthe end of the day, it’s a campus on Chinese soil.”
The muzzling of Stewart’s journal exposes the compromisesto academic freedom that some American universities make inChina. While professors and students openly discuss sensitivesubjects such as the Tibetan independence movement or the 1989Tiananmen Square protests on the Hopkins-Nanjing campus, theycan’t do so in the surrounding community. Even on-campusprotections only cover class discussions, not activities typicalof U.S. campuses, such as showing documentary films in a studentlounge.
Price for Expansion The Hopkins-Nanjing Center is a model for a growing numberof U.S. colleges, including Duke University and New YorkUniversity, which are establishing footholds in China. As thenewcomers take advantage of multimillion-dollar subsidies fromChina, they may jeopardize the intellectual give-and-take thatcharacterizes American higher education, said June TeufelDreyer, a University of Miami political science professor andChina specialist.
“In their enthusiasm to be part of the Chinese educationalpicture, American universities may be ceding some measure oftheir independence to avoid offending the government,” Dreyersaid.
The Hopkins-Nanjing Center has achieved its goal of being a“safe place” where Chinese and American students can debatecontroversial aspects of both societies, Johns Hopkins PresidentRonald Daniels said in a telephone interview.
“Is it what we would desire for every project, everycenter we’re involved in?” Daniels asked. “The answer is no.We would hope over time that the scope for discussion can extendbeyond the center.”
Academic Freedom Academic freedom “gives both students and faculty theright to express their views -- in speech, writing and throughelectronic communication, both on and off campus -- without fearof sanction,” Cary Nelson, president of the AmericanAssociation of University Professors, wrote in a 2010 essay.
Limits on academic freedom are one reason StanfordUniversity and Columbia University haven’t opened campuses inChina. Columbia has a study center in Beijing, while Stanfordplans to open one on the campus of Peking University next year.Such centers, which provide offices for visiting professors andhost lectures and fundraisers, are easily exited, ColumbiaPresident Lee Bollinger said.
“The one thing we have to do is maintain our academicintegrity, our academic independence,” Bollinger said. “Thereare too many examples of a strict and stern control that leadyou to think that this is kind of an explosive mix.”
No Guarantee Stanford President John Hennessy said its center has noprotection of academic freedom and other schools’ agreementsdon’t guarantee rights taken for granted in the U.S.
“Even the ones you get are so scripted as to not befreedom as we imagine it in this country,” Hennessy said.
At least a dozen private and public U.S. colleges eitherhave or are planning campuses in China. They are part ofAmerican colleges’ increasing and lucrative involvement withChina. About 57,000 Chinese undergraduates, most paying fulltuition, attended U.S. colleges in 2010-2011, six times as manyas in 2005-06. A Chinese government affiliate has contributedmillions of dollars to establish Confucius Institutes forChinese language and culture on 75 American campuses.
China’s government encourages cooperation between Chineseand foreign universities. China is seeking “more substantive,productive and enduring partnerships,” Liu Yanshen, a Ministryof Education official, said in an October speech in New York.
NYU to Shanghai NYU plans to open a liberal arts campus in 2013 inShanghai, where the municipal government, along with tuition andphilanthropy, will cover the expense, President John Sexton saidin an interview.
Students and faculty at the new campus shouldn’t assumethey can criticize government leaders or policies withoutrepercussions, Sexton said in his office in Manhattan’sWashington Square.
“I have no trouble distinguishing between rights ofacademic freedom and rights of political expression,” he said.“These are two different things.”
The city of Kunshan, 40 miles west of Shanghai, is spendingan estimated $260 million to build a new university jointly runby Duke and Wuhan University. Duke’s share of planning andoperating expenses is expected to be $43 million over six years.
Duke Conversations Duke administrators have had “pretty good conversationswith people at Hopkins” and would be comfortable drawingsimilar distinctions between “intra-campus discussion and whatyou do at large,” President Richard Brodhead said.
“We know China does not observe the same norms of FirstAmendment rights that we’re used to in this country,” Brodheadsaid in his office in Durham, North Carolina. “If you want toengage in China, you have to acknowledge that fact.”
U.S. universities also encounter challenges to academicfreedom in the Middle East. The University of Connecticutscrapped plans in 2007 to expand to Dubai amid criticism of theEmirate’s Israel policies. NYU last year opened an Abu Dhabicampus, which enjoys the same academic freedom as the WashingtonSquare campus, according to the university’s web site.
The Hopkins-Nanjing Center occupies a 10-story tower ofbrick and glass within a gated compound on the northwest cornerof the Nanjing University campus. “They probably have thestrictest security on campus,” said Man Fang, 24, a NanjingUniversity student.
The center, which grants one-year certificates and two-yearmaster’s degrees, has 164 students. Half of them are Chinese,and most of the rest are American. Chinese students take coursesin English and international students in Mandarin.
Understanding U.S. administrators try to anticipate the needs of theirChinese counterparts. “If you want understanding, you don’tconstantly antagonize people,” said Carolyn Townsley, directorof the center’s Washington support office.
Tuition covers most of the center’s cost, President Danielssaid. The center charges international students $22,000 for ACertificate and $36,000 a year for a master’s, plus housing.Nanjing University paid two-thirds of a $25 million-plusphysical expansion completed in August 2006, said Robert Daly,co-director from 2001-2007.
The Hopkins-Nanjing Center opened in 1986 as the firstcampus jointly run by U.S. and Chinese universities. Hopkinsinsisted the center should safeguard academic freedom in theclassroom, with a library giving students access to the samematerials as in the U.S., said George Packard, former dean ofHopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies in Washington,who helped negotiate the deal.
Campus as Sanctuary The most recent written version of the agreement, from2005, formalizes the concept of the campus as a sanctuary:
“Within the HNC, no student, faculty member, researchfellow, administrator, or visitor will be restricted in formalor casual speech, writing, access to research materials, orselection of research, lecture, or presentation topics.”
This approach precluded publications circulating outsidethe center, Daly said. “To have a voice reflective of thecenter would be to push the freedoms outside,” he said.
While necessary to establish the center, the restrictionson speech outside the classroom were “unreasonable, and wedon’t believe in them,” Packard said.
Jason Patent, the American co-director, tells Americanstudents at an orientation briefing that they can’t expect thesame levels of freedom as in the U.S., he said in an interview.
“‘The U.S. Constitution does not follow you here,’” hereminds them.
American students at Hopkins-Nanjing said they discusssensitive subjects in class -- and recognize the hazards ofdoing so outside it. “It’s been very interesting to engage withthe professors on topics that are somewhat taboo in China,”said Daniel Stein, 26, from New York.
‘Protected Space’ Brendon Stewart learned how the “protected space”agreement works in practice. A native of Albuquerque, NewMexico, he enrolled at Hopkins-Nanjing after a stint in thePeace Corps in Lanzhou, China.
Stewart began his journal late in 2009 to inject somevitality into a torpid campus, he said. The bilingual journalwould show off the center’s finest scholarship in Chinesehistory and politics and would be sent to donors and prospectivestudents.
“If you want to start a journal at an American university,you just start it,” Stewart said. “We thought we were addingvalue. We were like, ‘How does this not exist?’”
Encouraged by Jan Kiely, then American co-director of thecenter, Stewart began soliciting articles from students andfaculty, aiming for equal Chinese and U.S. representation. “Ididn’t foresee the way it was to become a problem,” Kiely said.
No Center Funds Still, he and Chinese administrators rejected Stewart’srequest for 3,000 yuan ($470) to print the journal. The centerrarely funds student projects, Kiely said. On Kiely’s advice,Stewart asked HNC alumni for donations, and he received ananonymous gift from an American alumnus in China.
Shortly before the journal was to be published, MitchellLazerus, an American student, posted a one-page essay denouncingthe Communist party on a white board outside the cafeteria. Theessay soured the atmosphere at the center, Stewart said. Lazerusdid not respond to e-mails.
Days later, a Chinese professor withdrew an article he hadsubmitted about the financial crisis.
Stewart then heard a rumor that all the Chinese studentswith articles in the journal wanted them removed because theywere afraid it would reflect Lazerus’s political views. Toreassure them, Stewart showed them the galleys.
Powers That Be “The word came back that they were all very sorry becausethey saw how hard we worked, but the powers that be wouldn’tallow them to participate,” said Stewart.
Most of the Chinese students involved in editing and layoutasked Stewart to remove their names. He complied.
Chinese authorities at Hopkins-Nanjing were worried that astudent-produced journal would draw unwanted attention to thecenter’s special protected status, Kiely said. Huang Chengfeng,the Chinese co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, declinedan interview request.
One Chinese student author said that a dean from NanjingUniversity unaffiliated with the Hopkins-Nanjing Centerprevailed on him to withdraw his article, which argued that theCommunist regime gains from grassroots protests because theyroot out local corruption without challenging the party’s power.
The Chinese dean suggested that removing the article wouldbe in the student’s best interest. “I did not expect that itwould turn out to be such a mess,” said the student, who askedthat his name not be used because he is concerned aboutrepercussions from Chinese officials. “I didn’t expect such arigid monitoring over students’ behavior.”
‘A Very Difficult Position’ Kiely held a forum to clear the air. He told studentsacademic freedom “doesn’t include being able to put Chinesestudents and professors in a very difficult position in theirown country,” he said.
Administrators told Stewart that he could publish hisjournal if he submitted it for their review and limitedcirculation to students and center personnel, he said. Theyremoved the word “center” from the journal’s title so that itdidn’t appear to be an official publication, he said.
Many of the 300 printed copies were never distributed,Stewart said. “I learned some incredible lessons about how thesystem works,” he said. “I got a lot more cynical.”
The journal “wasn’t part of our academic program,” Kielysaid. “It was intellectual activity and carried out in thatspirit, but it was not part of the program, and that’s where wedrew the line.”
Stewart’s journal was placed in the center’s library,Hopkins President Daniels said. The on-campus access “respectsthe boundaries that we have to operate in,” he said.
Conflicted Values The squelching was the “most obvious incident” where thecenter’s stated values conflicted with reality, said Adam Webb,a professor of international politics at Hopkins-Nanjing and acontributor to the journal.
Administrators also intervened on the eve of the 20thanniversary of Tiananmen Square in 2009, when students discussedthe uprisings in an online Google group. One American student,who asked not to be named, offered to screen a 1995 Chinese-language documentary about the protests, “The Gate of HeavenlyPeace,” which he had saved on his laptop.
“Everyone was debating about this and I said, ‘How aboutwe set up a time to watch the documentary and have adiscussion?’” the student said.
Film Interrupted About a dozen American and Chinese students and theirChinese guests gathered one Saturday evening in the lounge onthe center’s second floor. Once the film began, an Americanadministrator said they couldn’t watch it there. They finishedtheir viewing in the organizer’s dorm room.
Chinese police monitoring the Internet conversation hadalerted the center’s Chinese administrators, who contacted theirAmerican counterparts, Kiely said.
The Chinese reaction was “heavy handed,” he said.“Something like that of course makes them very nervous.”
It was “inappropriate” to show a video banned in China toan audience that included Chinese visitors unaffiliated with thecenter, said Felisa Neuringer Klubes, spokeswoman for Hopkins’School of Advanced International Studies. The video is availableto faculty, staff and students in the library, she said.
China mandates political-study courses in such topics asthe ideology of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, Daly said. WhileHopkins-Nanjing was exempted from this requirement, other jointcampuses may have to grapple with it, he said.
Studying Mao During early discussions with NYU, Chinese officialsmentioned a requirement for a Chinese study course, said MayLee, NYU’s associate vice chancellor for Asia. Two Britishschools fulfill that mandate at their China campuses withstandard history courses, she said. NYU would not teach anythingit objected to, Sexton said.
Neither Duke nor NYU has an agreement specifying what kindsof speech will be permitted at their campuses.
“We haven’t negotiated in advance about such things,”Duke President Brodhead said. “We’ve made it clear that we havevalues and principles and if it becomes untenable, we have anexit clause.”
The ministry of education assured Sexton that theuniversity can manage its academic program as it sees fit, hesaid. “If it gets to a point where we feel that our core andessence is being compromised, we can leave without havingjeopardized” the university’s finances or reputation.
Earlier NYU effort Restrictions on academic freedom helped trip up a prior NYUcollaboration in China. In 2006, officials at Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity’s law school asked NYU law professor Jerome A. Cohento start a joint law center. Cohen has studied China since the1960s and met leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng. Afterretiring from law practice, he began pushing to reform China’scriminal justice system.
“I may cause you nothing but trouble,” Cohen told JiaoTong administrators.
They reassured Cohen of their support. Then the Jiao Tongadministrator who had pushed for the center died, and partyrepresentatives began to criticize the program, Cohen said.
“It became clear that things would go better if I resignedas head of the NYU side,” he said. “I didn’t step down becauseit was a matter of principle.”
The three-year agreement between the two universitieswasn’t renewed. “We just let it drop,” Cohen said.
The Jiao Tong program was “fairly small,” said NYUspokesman John Beckman. At NYU’s study-abroad site in Shanghai,professors haven’t had issues with academic freedom, he said.
Cohen again encountered China’s limits on free speech whenTsinghua University School of Law in Beijing and the AmericanBar Association’s China office celebrated his 80th birthday witha May 2010 conference on the role of the criminal defense lawyerin China.
Removed From Panel At Cohen’s urging, the ABA invited Mo Shaoping, a humanrights lawyer whose clients have included Nobel Peace Prizewinner Liu Xiaobo and other dissidents, as a speaker.
The day before the event, Mo was dropped from the panel,presumably by Communist party officials at the upper levels ofthe university, Cohen said. After Cohen threatened to cancel theconference, he and an ABA representative were allowed to tellthe audience about Mo’s removal and to criticize the decision.
“I didn’t want to be associated with the denial of freespeech to a friend,” Cohen said.
The curbing of Brendon Stewart’s free speech rights didn’tstop him from trying again. Following the turmoil about thejournal, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center clarified its rules onextracurricular activities in 2010-11. From now on, studentswould need the administration’s approval for events and clubs.
Even with his prior ordeal, Stewart applied throughofficial channels to publish another journal.
His application was rejected.
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